The present invention relates generally to the vending machine industry, and more particularly is directed to a coin slide suitable for use with machines which are activated by a mechanical coin slide, for example coin operated laundry machines.
Coin slides have long been utilized in the vending machine industry to accept, check and receive coins of the required denomination and amount to pay for a specified vending operation. Early in the industry, it was common to employ a coin slide having but a single opening to receive therein a single coin, for example a dime or a quarter. Such an opening was usually horizontally aligned and the coin was accepted in horizontal orientation.
As prices began to rise and as machines became more sophisticated and more costly, it then became necessary to design and provide coin slides capable of functioning with more than one coin. It then became a common practice to employ a single coin slide to accept multiple coins, for example two, three or four coins. In these prior art devices also, it was the usual practice to design the coin slide with coin receiving openings in horizontal alignment. It will be appreciated as the number of coins increased, the size of the slide handle correspondingly also increased to provide for the number of coins thereon in side by side, horizontal arrangement.
More recently, coin slides have been developed which are suitable to accept multiple coins in vertical orientation. Such devices were generally designated as vertical coin slides and the handle was equipped with coin receiving slots of suitable size to receive therein coins of predetermined denomination. One of the drawbacks of the currently available vertical coin slides is the fact that the coin receiving slots were milled or otherwise formed to receive a specified coin or coins therewithin. When it was desired to change the vending price for an individual machine, it was necessary to provide a completely new handle having coin receiving slots of the proper sizes.
Additionally, in those instances wherein vertical coin slides were provided with, for example, four coin receiving slots, and for the desired price, only three of the slots were to be employed in the coin accepting operation, it then became necessary to blank the unused slot or opening. This usually required disassembly and reassembly of the mechanism, all of which took considerable time, effort and skill.
Further, coin slides, by their very nature, must be ruggedly constructed and must be designed to function reliably and effectively under severe conditions of use. The mechanism must be able to differentiate between real coins and slugs, between proper coins and blanking devices sometimes introduced by vandals or thieves. As an additional consideration, coin slides also must be effective in accepting multiple coins of proper denomination and in rejecting coins of improper denomination. Such important and complicated functions often led to the development of coin slides that were unusually complex in construction, quite expensive in fabrication and unusually difficult to repair or adjust.